Much attention today is being directed at new or previously unused sources of energy as well as the conservation and more efficient use of our present energy sources. In the area of new or previously unused energy sources, solar energy has and is presently one energy source where much research and development is being directed.
Applications of solar energy in agriculture have been suggested and in fact actually placed in practice. The Inventor of the present invention, Dr. B. K. Huang, devised what has been referred to as a "Greenhouse-Bulk Tobacco Curing Barn", the structure thereof being fully disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,334. Dr. Huang's greenhouse-bulk curing tobacco barn, as disclosed in the above-referred to patent, was basically directed to use by tobacco farmers as both a greenhouse and a curing and drying structure. In the greenhouse embodiment, the farmer can grow his tobacco seedlings or horticultural crops under controlled environmental conditions, and where transplanting is appropriate and desired plants or seedlings are taken from the structure and transplanted in the fields. During tobacco harvesting, the structure is converted for use as a curing and drying structure for curing and/or drying the harvested leaves.
Briefly reviewing the basic curing and drying embodiment of the Huang greenhouse-bulk tobacco barn, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,334, it is noted that the same comprises a transparent outer housing structure and disposed interiorly thereof is a black plastic-like heat absorber that defines a curing and drying area thereunder. In this Huang solar curing and drying structure, the design calls for a relatively dead air space between the outer transparent walls and the inner disposed heat absorber, and as such, solar energy utilization results from heat energy being collected and absorbed by the inner heat absorber and being transferred directly inwardly to the drying area and the forced air passing therethrough.